AndyMan74

Hello,

It’s nearly that time when myself (Dual Citizen) and my wife (IR-1) will be doing our POE at Orlando. As allot of people on here are aware the humungous white envelope must travel with my wife so she can present it to immigration and hopefully get through with no problems. The question I have is how have people carried this envelope? Is it ok to fold it within reason and squeeze it into a carryon bag or does my wife have to carry it from airport to airport in her hand?

Pulaski

In a carry-on is fine. It can be bent a little but is, IME, too fat to be folded. It certainly doesn't need to be carried in your hand. It has a copy of all your case documents in it, so the ends cane be folded over a little, to reduce its length - imagine 2-3cm stack of papers in an envelope. ..... But as she should have it in her hand when she approaches the immigration desk on arrival in the US it doesn't really matter how she carried it on the plane.

AndyMan74

Thanks Pulaski,

And I'm correct in thinking that when we get stateside we both get in the US citizen line and I hand my US passport over first and then my wife presents her paper work and temp green card in her passport.

Pulaski

Probably yes, but most airports have a CBP officer in the queueing area, so check with them and they will direct you which queue to join.

And BTW at the moment she has a visa in her passport - an immigration officer will put an I-551 stamp in her passport, which is a "temporary green card" (valid for 12 months).

AndyMan74

Cheers

tom169

Carried it in the laptop compartment of my backpack.

AndyMan74

So you folded it to around A4 size. How did your POE experience go Tom?

civilservant

I put mine in my rucksack with the end folded over as Pulaski suggests. They did not comment on it when I pulled it out at POE.

ivanidea

When I went through Orlando last year, mine was stamped with a 2 year expiry date. Didn't make any difference though, since I received the actual Green Card 2 months later.

As an aside, my employer thought my CR1 expiry date was my green card expiry date - I had to point out the difference between the single use CR1 entry visa and the Green Card endorsement.

And my envelope fitted in my carry on case, and even managed to stay reasonably flat.

rpjs

Point of information Mr Pulaski: unless things have changed, the CBP officer will stamp a regular "ARC" (Alien Registration Card) entry stamp next to or slightly over the visa. Thus endorsed, it is the visa that serves as the temporary I-551. As I understand it there is a separate temporary I-551 stamp but that usually gets issued by USCIS as required, not by CBP.

tom169

Was told to go to secondary after I got my checked bag. When I retrieved my bag I headed over to secondary and immediately was given my passport back and told to get married.

AndyMan74

Excellent so no real issues

S Folinsky

As an aside regarding "around A4 size": A4 is a metric size not used in the US. The US standard is 8.5" x 11". In other words, US "letter size" is wider but shorter than A4. No big thing, but it sometimes creates problems in copying or scanning documents.

AndyMan74

Very good point. I do need to get back into my American state of mind.

tom169

Good point. My immigration folder has a bunch of different sizes all crammed into the US letter size holders.